Ordinary diners who take part in our annual survey each spring review restaurants and leave their feedback, but we also ask them to score restaurants from 1-5 on food, service and ambience. Harden’s then uses an average of these scores and measures them against other establishments in the same price bracket to arrive at the ratings published in the guide and online.

Snippets from some of your feedback may end up in the overall Harden’s review, noticeably they appear in “double quotation marks”. The rest of our pithy, bite-sized restaurant summaries are compiled by analysing the survey data and extracting recurring themes, looking at whether or not a venue was nominated in any of our categories – like ‘favourite’ or ‘most overpriced’ – and, of course, looking at the ratings for food, service and ambience.

The Harden’s ratings indicate that a restaurant is:

exceptional very good good average poor

All reviews are compiled from survey comments and ratings, without any regard for our own personal opinions, except in cases where restaurants are too new to have been included in the survey. If you want the editors’ view on new restaurants in London you can find them in our Editors’ Review section.

Harden's Guides have been compiling reviews of the best Indian restaurants in Greater Manchester since 1998.

“Wow! Fresh, cheap and tasty as hell!”; the Indian street food menu is full of character and “they have a large list of craft ales and ciders” – “what a combo!” – at this “unmissable” if “basic” vegetarian treat: “a fantastic addition to the curry scene in Manchester”, and one that’s quickly become one of the city’s foremost destinations. “No table service and queues at the bar to order can be lengthy at busy times”.

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Our aim is to take you on a sensory journey across Nepal and the Indian subcontinent through aromas, spices and a traditional atmosphere.
Namaste Nepal is our only establishment i...

This much-loved curry house is perennially busy (“you have to queue”) for good reasons: the food is both “delicious” and “cheap ’n’ cheerful” – £14.95 buys a ‘meat feast balti, gigantic naan and pilau rice’, and if you can clear your plate dessert comes free.

“Although it’s in a seedy part of town” and “looks a bit worn” (even after a refurb’), this “cheap and cheerful” curry café elicits only raves. Expect a “massive whack of flavour for very little cash” (“no menu, just point at the dish and you get a dollop”) – “a fiver gets you a plateful, three curries rice and naan”. Top Tip – “go there before the office crowd”.

“Fresh and exciting little taste bombs, with no evidence of gloopy sauce” sums up the appeal of the Indian street-food-style dishes at this jazzy First Street operation, which has “a quirky design, with the bar and kitchen being housed in old shipping containers, and with the best seats in the booths by the window”. Having taken Cheadle by storm, this new unit opened a couple of years ago – it can seem “a bit chaotic” but mostly wins praise for its tasty and affordable options (and the “great selection of dosas and thalis include much that will suit vegetarians or vegans”).

The famous bacon naan will finally hit Manchester in early December 2018 as this Mumbai-inspired chain opens in the grade II-listed Manchester Hall. This new addition has gone down a storm in Edinburgh – it will be bizarre if it doesn’t here too.